Saturday, March 06, 2010

I've Just Gotta Get This Out

Today I saw something that I wish in my whole life I never had to see. I hated that I saw it but I have to write it down I think, at least I think I should. Maybe I'm being dramatic, but...here goes:

I got up this morning and took Buddy for a run, we go slow and stop a lot, it's nice and easy going. We're running north on a Wolcott or something and I see this dog go running by maybe... 30 feet ahead of me, headed east, running pretty fast.

Well that's curious. (My heart is beating so fast just writing this.)

We come up after the dog has passed east and I look down the street - we're kind of by a park so I think maybe he got out of the park and someone's running after this guy - lost dog. My heart is with the dog but I was on guard pretty quickly. I wonder what to do, do I go chase him? I can't really, I have Remo, that's stupid. I have no phone...so honestly, I kind of decide to move on figuring someone's gotta be chasing this dog. As I'm thinking maybe it's best if I get Buddy out of the line of sight of this guy I see the dog running toward another guy out walking his dog on the other side of the street.

That's when I stop in the middle of the street and the world stops for about 30 seconds. I hear it first, the dogs barking, the guy sounding questionable with escalating sounds of terror and yelling. I'm standing there listening to this, frozen stock still, looking around - there's no one. I want to go over there but I have Remo, I can't, I just can't. I start yelling HELP HELP GOD PLEASE HELP and I see the guy lift his dog above his head, screaming and grunting and crying and the dog is just attacking and barking and by this point I'm screaming my head off and I see a guy getting out of his car and I'm yelling at him and the guy is now down on the ground I think, covering and protecting his dog and screaming and this black guy comes running up and I'm crying and telling him that there's this dog attacking this guy.

And as I look back I notice the attacking dog has stopped and is headed straight for us. I fucking FREAK OUT and run Buddy into one of those apartment front yards with big iron gates, you know those? I fucking love those, I get Remo in and slam the gate sure that the dog is going to get Remo, but we get in and the black guy (my personal hero) grabs the dog by the collar and the dog sits down and looks like nothing happened, smiling, quiet, easy-going. It was so weird.

Meanwhile the guy who was attacked is moaning, crying out, no words - grunts and moans and we're yelling across the street "are you okay? are you okay?" And he's completely in shock - he looked really young, like 17 maybe, 18. He's holding his hand and he says "I don't know, my hand, I live right there, I live right there." And he's walking and his dog looked okay I think, he was walking, certainly not mortally wounded in anyway, that kid totally saved his dog.

Eventually we look at the dogs tags and more people are out and call police and call the owner and then the kid and his mom come running out of the house, an older polish lady who hugs me and the black guy. The cops put the dog in the squad car.

And that was about it.

It was the flip of a coin that it wasn't me and Remo. He passed right by us.

I want to get some kind of pepper spray, something.

I also know now what I should have done was look for that gate thing first and put Remo away, or at least get us safe and I could have started to distract the dog. I could have acted faster, I could have. But I'm alright with what I did do.

And now I know to trust my instincts every time and if I see a stray running up at us, we're inside one of those gates in two seconds.

That poor kid, just out walking his dog on a sunny Saturday morning. I can't stop thinking about that kid.

i'm speechless (although there's no one here to hear me speak) and so scared right now. i'm trying to piece it all together, but i get how it goes, how it happens all so fast. and yet, how things stand still.

great thinking on the gate, by the way. i thought "nice work!!"

don't worry about not carrying pepper spray -- i don't know that it would have done anything but given you a second to get away -- i don't know that it would have prevented anything more than that.

the only thing in the story that i wondered about for your sake was when you go out -- you don't bring your phone? again, i don't think it would have done a bit of good in this situation -- the cops wouldn't have been able to stop what happened to the kid, but just for your own safety for other situations? that would be something i'd consider.

all in all, it sounds like you had a really classic "blink" moment, and that you DID trust your instincts by getting out of sight of the dog in the first place. so crazy. happy everyone's safe, short of some shakeup.